The ‘best player available’ approach and trade hypotheticals

“Will Terry Fontenot abandon the best player available mantra? The defense has real holes and if Fontenot does not upgrade the defense this will be his last year.”

Will: I picked this question to start with because it’s a good opportunity to clarify what I’ve heard recently from Fontenot on this front.

The term “best player available” is obviously a helpful way to think about this approach, but I don’t know if it should be taken as literally as it has been. I went back to listen to Fontenot’s introductory press conference back in January of 2021, and here’s the exact phrase he used when describing his best-player philosophy.

“We never want to reach for needs.”

That isn’t the exact same as saying the Falcons will take the player at the top of their draft board every single time without a second thought. Oftentimes these boards are set up in tiers, so there may be multiple players with identical or near-identical grades in the same group when a team is on the clock. In that scenario, the position may become a factor. Or it may not. I don’t have the secret recipe to the Falcons’ draft approach and each team is different.

But not reaching for a need simply means a team won’t pick a player with a lower draft grade or in a lower tier solely because of the position he plays.

“When I say best player available for us, we’re talking about not reaching for needs, Fontenot said at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. Want to take impact players off the board, and so you want to make sure you do that.”

The strong consensus about this year’s draft is that the defensive talent is superior. There are better top-end prospects on defense, and it’s a deep class with starting options expected to be available well into Day 2. Atlanta’s scouts and front office considered all of this when they created their initial draft board before the combine began.

Fontenot and his staff are well aware of what the roster’s strengths and weaknesses are, and they will strive to fill needs as they can. But he’s stated they won’t pass up a player they believe is better just because they need a certain position. In this draft class, though, the best players line up with the team’s needs quite nicely.

“Is it even worth it to trade Kyle Pitts at his current value? I think, at this point, you just ride it out rather than getting a…